Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed as “not serious” reports of Russian agents captured in Ukraine. He accused US politicians of distorting facts and wrongfully interpreting the Geneva agreement on de-escalation.

Lavrov lashed out at western politicians while speaking at a
young diplomats’ forum in Moscow. The minister accused his
counterparts in the EU and the US of making unsubstantiated
statements.

"Kerry has many times mentioned that Ukrainian intelligence
captured Russian agents,” Lavrov said. “So, show them to
the people, have them on TV. Kerry says they don’t want to
disclose the identities of those people who are engaged in the
captures. This is not serious.”

While the west is accusing Russia of not following through on the
Geneva agreement, Lavrov believes the attitude stems from
misinterpretation of the de-escalation agreement.

“Representatives of the US State Department, Victoria Nuland
in particular, claim that in Geneva we agreed upon ‘separatists’
leaving the occupied buildings,” Lavrov said. “This is a
lie, this could not have been written, because we were promoting
the approach that ensures the simultaneity of processes and equal
responsibilities of the sides when it comes to vacating illegally
occupied buildings and disarming illegal groups.”

Lavrov said that Russia would not allow the distortion of the
text of the Geneva agreement. He also questioned assertions made
by John Kerry a day earlier concerning Kiev’s full compliance
with the Geneva agreement. Kerry said authorities in the Ukrainian capital were
“removing the barricades in the Maidan and cleaning up the
square.”

“Instead of tires, they are now setting up concrete blocks
there,” Lavrov said. “No one is going to clear the place.”

Lavrov complained that his western counterparts were not
abandoning the language of slogans, even in one-on-one telephone
conversations.

“If you think that when John Kerry, William Hague or Laurent
Fabius call me, they speak differently in those personal contacts
and say something you don’t know from their public speeches, you
are mistaken,” Lavrov said, adding that he was still making
attempts to have a real constructive dialogue with the officials
he mentioned.

All kinds of sanctions against Russia are a sign of Western
states having “got lost in their own game,” he said.

“The West generally wants – and the whole thing started with
that – to capture Ukraine, with the intention being solely based
on geopolitical ambition, not on the interests of the Ukrainian
people.”

When the West realized it couldn’t get it its own way, it grew
frustrated, Lavrov said. The frustration has been revealed in the
“hard efforts on the sanctions trackway.”